History of Phoenicia eBook

PREFACE

Histories of Phoenicia or of the Phoenicians were
written towards the middle of the present century
by Movers and Kenrick. The elaborate work of
the former writer[01] collected into five moderate-sized
volumes all the notices that classical antiquity had
preserved of the Religion, History, Commerce, Art,
&c., of this celebrated and interesting nation.
Kenrick, making a free use of the stores of knowledge
thus accumulated, added to them much information derived
from modern research, and was content to give to the
world in a single volume of small size,[02] very scantily
illustrated, the ascertained results of criticism and
inquiry on the subject of the Phoenicians up to his
own day. Forty-four years have since elapsed;
and in the course of them large additions have been
made to certain branches of the inquiry, while others
have remained very much as they were before.
Travellers, like Robinson, Walpole, Tristram, Renan,
and Lortet, have thrown great additional light on the
geography, geology, fauna, and flora of the country.
Excavators, like Renan and the two Di Cesnolas, have
caused the soil to yield up most valuable remains
bearing upon the architecture, the art, the industrial
pursuits, and the manners and customs of the people.
Antiquaries, like M. Clermont-Ganneau and mm.
Perrot and Chipiez, have subjected the remains to careful
examination and criticism, and have definitively fixed
the character of Phoenician Art, and its position
in the history of artistic effort. Researches
are still being carried on, both in Phoenicia Proper
and in the Phoenician dependency of Cyprus, which
are likely still further to enlarge our knowledge
with respect to Phoenician Art and Archaeology; but
it is not probable that they will affect seriously
the verdict already delivered by competent judges
on those subjects. The time therefore appeared
to the author to have come when, after nearly half
a century of silence, the history of the people might
appropriately be rewritten. The subject had long
engaged his thoughts, closely connected as it is with
the histories of Egypt, and of the “Great Oriental
Monarchies,” which for thirty years have been
to him special objects of study; and a work embodying
the chief results of the recent investigations seemed
to him a not unsuitable termination to the historical
efforts which his resignation of the Professorship
of Ancient History at Oxford, and his entrance upon
a new sphere of labour, bring naturally to an end.

The author wishes to express his vast obligations
to mm. Perrot and Chipiez for the invaluable
assistance which he has derived from their great work,[03]
and to their publishers, the mm. Hachette,
for their liberality in allowing him the use of so
large a number of mm. Perrot and Chipiez’
Illustrations. He is also much beholden to the
same gentlemen for the use of charts and drawings
originally published in the “Geographie Universelle.”